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Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating the Question- What is

Food Sovereignty?

Article  in  Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics · October 2018

DOI: 10.1007/s10806-018-9748-1

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Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-018-9748-1

ARTICLES

Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating

the Question: What is Food Sovereignty?

Shane Epting1

Accepted: 6 October 2018

© Springer Nature B.V. 2018

Abstract
The topic of food sovereignty has received ample attention from philosophers and
interdisciplinary scholars, from how to conceptualize the term to how globalization
shapes it, and several areas in between. This bounty of research informs us about
food sovereignty’s practical dimensions, but the theoretical realm still has lessons
to teach us, especially how to develop action-based guides to achieve it. This paper
is an exploration in that direction. To have that effect, the author interrogates the
question, “what is food sovereignty?”, through asking about its motivations, scale,
and the answers that will inform solutions. This process reveals that, despite the dif-
ferences between conceptions of food sovereignties, there is a pattern at play that
concerns their nature. The benefit of gaining an understanding of this pattern is to
uncover the necessary elements that each solution will require.

Keywords  Strong food sovereignty · Weak food sovereignty · Philosophy of food

Introduction

Philosophers have done a great deal of work interpreting the world of food, and a
few of them realize that the point is to change it. For example, a recent anthology
focuses on food-justice issues in cities such as Detroit, examining how such efforts
lead to real-world improvements (Werkheiser and Piso 2017). While this research
informs us about the work being done in the fields and on the streets, there is more
conceptual analysis that requires us to spend time tinkering with ideas in armchairs,
barstools, at kitchen tables, and perhaps at drive-through windows.
To this end, plenty has also been said about the theoretical notions that pertain
to food sovereignty. Academics and activists have developed several definitions and
accounts (Via Campesina 2007; Jarosz 2014; Navin 2014; Grey and Patel 2015).
They charted its historical influence, developing different categories that help us

* Shane Epting
shane.epting@gmail.com
1
Department of Philosophy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

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Vol.:(0123456789)
 S. Epting

understand various social and political circumstances (Werkheiser 2014; Werkheiser

and Noll 2014; Werkheiser et al. 2015; Menser 2014; Epting 2016). Scholars have
enlightened us to the many ways that globalization shapes and brings forth calls for
food sovereignty (Ayres and Bosia 2011). There are also several accounts that speak
to different forms of oppressions that have correlating forms of revolution (Holt-
Giménez and Altieri 2013). Researchers have also debated it limits (Bernstein 2014;
Whyte 2016) Despite showing that food sovereignty is a resourceful concept for
thinking about food-related issues, it has critics. Aerni (2011), for instance, holds
that for several of the people working to gain food sovereignty, it is not an ideal
lifestyle, showing that people employing the concept in different parts of the world
are dealing with vastly different conditions. Moreover, historical incidents also show
that food sovereignty is not always as glorious as it sounds (Aerni 2011).
While the non-exhaustive list of topics above have been thoroughly investigated,
the subject that receives nary an inquiry is the question: what is food sovereignty?
Upon first glance, one might think that I am merely asking the question, “what is
food sovereignty?”, but that would be a mistake. I already said that such inquiries
have been thoroughly explored. I mean, let us examine the question itself: what is
food sovereignty? Although we could learn about several aspects of food sover-
eignty through employing different disciplinary or interdisciplinary lens, my goal
is to exhibit that we can understand food sovereignty by interrogating the question
above. Most importantly, through analyzing the question, we can also learn about
the answers, or, rather—the solutions.
I intend to show that such an investigation can inform us about the conditions
that surround the topic, the specific circumstances that move us to care about the
inquiry. That is to say, what leads people to wonder about food sovereignty? The
short answer is injustice. At the heart of the matter, this notion is what we seek to
understand. To undertake this task, I ask: what is the goal of posing the question,
“what is food sovereignty?”. After addressing this concern, I investigate the scale
of our inquiry, paying attention to the details of food sovereignty at the individual,
community, state, national, and international levels. Once we have a better under-
standing of food sovereignties of scale, I examine how these elements could impact
their required solutions. This interrogation shows that there is an underlying pat-
tern that connects calls for food sovereignty, despite having great differences in the
specifics that we find with each case. While this investigation has the inherent value
of theoretical speculation, understanding this pattern will benefit researchers who
are working toward food sovereignty, at least that is the goal. In turn, this paper
reviews the literature on the subject, examines the tensions and cohesions that are
found throughout food sovereignty movements, and then it sketches some practical
ways to work towards food sovereignty.

The Goal of Inquiry

One way to answer the question above is to hold that the goal of any food sover-
eignty discourse should be to rid ourselves of the need to have discussions about
food sovereignty. Aside from the inherent joys of rigorous speculation, we would

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Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating the Question:…

probably not be asking the question if there were no problems with the food supply
or issues related to food security. However, considering that food researchers have
produced a litany of publications that address problems that pertain to the produc-
tion, control, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food, we have good reason to
believe that our food systems are in peril (e.g. Thompson and Kaplan 2014).
Due to these dangers, we merge the concepts of “food” and “sovereignty” to give
us a theoretical device, “food sovereignty”. One of the motivations behind develop-
ing this term is that it can reveal that our collective ability to preserve the integ-
rity of our food supply demands attention. Through putting these words together,
we underscore the idea that food is inextricably bound to the political realm (Wilde
2013). This reality suggests that we can develop measures that can alleviate or can
exacerbate social or public-health harms, conditions that move us to formulate
responses to the question.
To focus on another dimension of the question, through posing the query, “what
is food sovereignty?” we find that there is an implied notion that the person ask-
ing the question wants an answer for a particular reason, assuming that such a pur-
pose is not for the intrinsic value of inquiring. One could argue that the motivation
behind posing the question is to figure out how to obtain food sovereignty, either for
one’s self, community, or for a higher cause such as justice in society. If a person is
attempting to define the concept of food sovereignty, and it is implied that they want
it, then we can also know that the possibility exists for someone or something else
to have it, meaning that the questioner probably does not possess it, either partially
or fully. From this point, we can identify a certain tension between the individual
or group who does not have authority over their food security and the entities that
do have control over it. That is, identifying the political nature of sovereignty with
respect to basic control over who has access to food or healthy food in a way that is
consistent and dependable is a critical aspect of carrying on such a discourse.
Conversely, we also can know that the opposite could be the case. People could
have food sovereignty because they have either reclaimed or defended it from a party
that wants power over food. If there is a struggle between two parties, say the gov-
ernment and community, then the possibility exists that there could be different vari-
eties or competing degrees of food sovereignty. For example, there could be absolute
or near-absolute food sovereignty, suggesting that a person or community could have
total control over all or virtually all aspects of their food supply. We could call this
absolute, total or “strong” food sovereignty, keeping in mind the degree of authority
that is required to have it, “total food liberationists”. For example, the Declaration
of Nyéléni (Via Campesina 2007) would fit under this description, considering the
scope of the requirements that they demand. Consider the following excerpt:
Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate
food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their
right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations
and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of
food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corpora-
tions. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a
strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime,

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 S. Epting

and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined
by local producers and users. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national
economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agri-
culture, artisanal-fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distri-
bution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustain-
ability.
While the above passage does not include all of the aspects of concern, it exhibits
that food sovereignty is not an isolated issue. It remains interconnected with numer-
ous other aspects of life, and wanting to have this degree of authority would require
more control than regulation of agricultural production allows, considering that it
extensively appeals to markets and future generations. It goes beyond wanting to
grow vegetables and raise backyard chickens. If we are to engage in a battle for
food sovereignty, then we concurrently must engage in numerous other struggles.
This approach wants to control the means of production while keeping an eye on
future generations, along with several other considerations. It also wants to delegiti-
mize the economic controls of competing national sovereignties, pitting one sover-
eignty against another—the nation state versus local communities. However, if this
approach is too extreme, then there is reason and room to compromise.
This leads directly to the approach that would allow for citizens to participate
in the decisions that control some of the aspects that pertain to food in various
capacities. This version would be compatible or “weak” food sovereignty, wherein
governments and people share control over the elements that pertain to a jurisdic-
tion’s food security, a form of what could be called ‘food co-sovereignty.’ We could
further divide this category into a range of outcomes, considering that there are
numerous ways to compromise. Menser’s (2014) account of state-sponsored food
sovereignty would match this description, a kind of food sovereignty wherein the
government retained official control over food but permitted the people to control
its local production and consumption (e.g. Cuba). Within the spectrum of weak food
sovereignty, there is no reason why there cannot be different arrangements wherein
compromises of authority are expressed through several outcomes. People or groups
can differently control elements of their food supply.
For instance, one could argue that local food movements around the world aim
to have a kind of authority that does not want to extensively deal with the minutiae
of food production and distribution. They simply want to grow vegetables such as
tomatoes and lettuce, in the vein of community gardens. While such efforts greatly
differ from the motivations found in state-sponsored food sovereignty, remaining
compatible with the government shows that this kind of food sovereignty is weak,
albeit weaker than Menser’s (2014) description of state-sponsored food sovereignty.
To count as meaningful, however, steps would have to be taken to ensure that citizen
participation could actually have an impact, rather than giving the illusion of ame-
lioration of the lack of food sovereignty (Barber 1984).
Lastly, of course, there is no food sovereignty, a case that is defined by its
absence, meaning that an external power forbids your ability to be sovereign over
your food, either unofficially or through tacitly controlling enough of the food sys-
tem that all practical considerations are rendered useless. That is to say, through a

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Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating the Question:…

complex web of bureaucracy or political double-speak, a government could pro-

vide the illusion that people have a say in the decisions that pertain to food security,
but such arrangements would lack any kind of meaningful ability to improve the
food system. While such an option is not something that people who are fighting
for food sovereignty would ever want or graciously accept, it is a possibility in the
range of answers, suggesting that it should be included for the purposes of a thor-
ough investigation.
Bearing in mind that these kinds of food sovereignties can exist, they would inter-
sect with different political systems. The kind of food sovereignty that would emerge
would correlate to the political entity in question. For example, in a dictatorship,
there would likely be an absence of food sovereignty. In a representative democracy,
there could be a compatibilist version of the concept. People could choose to have
their own food sovereignty or relinquish it to another party, or perhaps some combi-
nation of these extremes, hence “weak” food sovereignty.
Although the list above is non-exhaustive, it indicates the variety of alterna-
tive political systems that will or will not permit food sovereignty, along with their
respective gradations. One challenge to this view is that it is not possible to have
kinds of food sovereignty, either you have it or you do not have it. For instance, one
could argue that food sovereignty entails that you have control over food security.
Yet, if a person or group only controls a particular aspect of their food supply, then
they are under the impression that they can determine their food security, but they
cannot control the conditions that set the course for their food supply, meaning that
any kind of “weak” food sovereignty only counts as a way to placate people who
need to believe that they have control. In reality, however, having minimal influence
does not equal having an ability to determine the conditions of your food security. It
is merely a version of “illusionary control” (Thompson 1999, 187). In turn, anything
less than absolute or strong food sovereignty is an illusion.
While such a response does pose certain challenges for the view holding that
there can be degrees of food sovereignty, it fails to weigh a significant consideration.
That is to say, simply because one cannot decide the extent that one can or cannot
influence all aspects that pertain to food security does not eliminate one’s ability
to determine the conditions of the dimensions that a person actually can control.
For example, people could be free to grow crops, but the government could oversee
animal husbandry. People would not have complete authority, but they would not be
without some degree of power. Although it does not eliminate the possibility that
previously granted powers could be withheld, this point establishes the possibility
that compatibilists’ positions have a strong case.
Having seen that our primary question can tell us a lot about the conditions that
surround food sovereignty, we can now investigate how we can extend the question
to larger and complex cases wherein the topic applies. For instance, we have seen
why individuals and groups would want to pose the question, along with the goals
that motivate such inquires, but there are other actors that can impact food sover-
eignty. In the following section, I undertake the task of examining the scales that
need to be taken into account when applying the insights that I listed above. This
moves the discussion from theoretical speculation to practical application.

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 S. Epting

The Scale of the Question

While we addressed the notion of personal and community food sovereignty in

the previous section, the question, “what is food sovereignty?” goes beyond mere
categorical speculation. Of course, the individual person is the extreme lower
limit to this scale, but what about the opposite end with larger bodies such as
nations? Can they hinder another country’s food sovereignty? Bearing in the
mind that we live in a globalized world, addressing this dimension will show us
how we must weigh this consideration. For instance, Jonas (1984) suggests that
today’s geopolitical power-struggles mean that we have to talk about exploitation
and oppression between nations, mostly in terms of resources and production.
If we consider the power dynamics behind trade wars, intergovernmental neo-
liberal trade agreements, and involvement from international financing organi-
zations, then it is simply naive to deny that stronger nations can exploit weaker
ones. Stronger nations could leverage other nations and organizations to direct
food production so that it works to their advantage. In turn, the complexities of
these interactions play out in actual scenarios that lead to food insecurity through
distorted control of food supplies and availability can create conditions wherein
one nation or a group of them can affect the quality of another nation’s food sov-
ereignty. When such events happen, we can apply the same reasoning about why
and how such events unfold from the previous section to those situations, along
with the views on weak and strong food sovereignties.
Depending on the political circumstances, a nation could end up with one of
these food sovereignties, bearing in mind that there would have to be adjustments
in these categories to account for the shift in scale. If a powerful country is free to
engage in any kind of agricultural production to have food security, then we could
say that they have strong food sovereignty on a grand scale. However, if a smaller
nation were beholden to an international monetary agency for developmental
funds, and part of repayment conditions included provisions for growing tea, but
they were free to produce all other foods, then we could say that they have a very
weak sense of food sovereignty. The danger with this issue is that millions or bil-
lions of people could be subject to the harmful conditions that could come about
due to the unjust conditions that lead us to ask, “what is food sovereignty?”.
With dominant nations wielding power as single actors, all individuals remain
subject to such an authority, and control over food security could be out of the
people’s grasp. Moreover, it could be the case that a government could be indi-
rectly influenced through political chicanery. Consider, for instance, that a study
from Gilens and Page (2014) shows that everyday citizens lack any practical
means of influencing their elected representatives in the US, but corporations who
that make significant campaign contributions have such abilities. Bearing this
position in mind, food conglomerates could attain control of a country’s food sup-
ply or influence foreign policy in a manner that could impact another nation(s). If
one nation were inclined to appropriate the food supply from another country, or
aimed to supply food to another nation in a manner that impeded local residents’
established practices, then this kind of situation could entice the population to

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Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating the Question:…

push for food sovereignty on a smaller scale, sending a ripple of protest through
both nations. However, if things were fair on this scale—then we could deliver a
better quality of life for those same populations. This point gestures toward my
claim that the goal of food sovereignty discourse is to eliminate the need to ask
questions about food sovereignty, assuming that the production of food was not
subject to conditions that would garner grand-scale social disapproval.
Keeping these points in mind, along with the concerns addressed in the previ-
ous sections, we have enhanced our understanding about the purpose and scale of
the question, “what is food sovereignty?”,—or at least that was the goal. Through
this interrogation, we have a better understanding behind our motivations for posing
the inquiry, along with an understanding that it can transcend the individual. Hav-
ing problematized the issue of food sovereignty in these ways, we can venture into
(mostly) uncharted territory: solutions. That is to say, the fact that we are dealing
with a question of this caliber suggests that we are also looking for an answer, or,
solution. In the section that follows, I focus on this topic.

Solutions for Food Sovereignty

“What is food sovereignty?”, the question under interrogation is now ready to be

examined about its possible answers. One can also assume that we are not merely
looking for an answer to the question, but we want an answer that informs action.
Such an answer can inform policymakers so that they can develop realistic solutions,
on local and global scales. For example, if I were to say that food sovereignty is the
ability of people to have authority over their food security, then we would use this
answer to guide how we develop policies that would facilitate bringing this defini-
tion into the lived world. Yet, bearing in mind food sovereignties of scale, we cannot
assume that all groups participating in food sovereignty movements are engaged in
the same fight, but it might be safe to say that they are all fighting on the same side
of food justice. In turn, the solutions that are informed by an answer remain inter-
connected, even though they differ.
Once we know what is food sovereignty, we need to ask: how can we facilitate
a process that would bring it to the parties that want it? One complication is that,
as indicated earlier, not all food sovereignty movements require the same kind of
solutions. On one hand, for strong food sovereignty, as we saw in the Declaration
of Nyéléni, an acceptable solution could require complete and total food liberation.
On the other hand, weak food sovereignty might only require that we address par-
ticular elements that the food sovereignists desire. This point could indicate that
food sovereignty discourses are too dissimilar to have a common conversation. To
deliver a viable and shared solution means that we have to identify the commonali-
ties between them. When we stack them against each other, we can identify a pattern
that emerges from behind the particular characteristics.
For instance, the kind of strong food sovereignty activism that we saw in the Dec-
laration of Nyéléni has received criticisms for being too expansive (Flora 2011). It
wants to fix a broken world in order to deal with a malfunctioning food system. I
am sympathetic to these critiques because they are assessing the effectiveness of

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dealing with an isolated topic, one that needs attention to alleviate harm and prevent
future suffering. However, food is not an issue that we can easily separate from its
socio-political-material surroundings. Bearing in mind that food is social and politi-
cal, these elements affect the physical distribution of networks that feed the people
on the planet. To pretend that these issues can be dealt with in a vacuum is to avoid
the harsh realities that remain inextricably linked to food: exploitation and abuse of
workers and nations, along with treatment of nonhuman environments that have led
to climate change. If we were to tackle all of the stipulations described in the Decla-
ration of Nyéléni, it would require a global revolution.
When dealing with weak food sovereignty, there is no demand for a food upris-
ing. Yet, this notion does not entail that it is entirely different from strong food sov-
ereignty. Consider, for example, community-focused food sub-movements that hold
food sovereignty as a value and a goal (Werkheiser and Noll 2014). One reason that
they could champion this cause is due to topics such as food deserts. For example,
scholars who examine food deserts argue that the socio-material arrangements of
transport infrastructure and policies, coupled with aspects such as zoning and crime,
directly impact people’s food security (Walker et al. 2010; Guy et al. 2004; Acheson
1998). Such considerations could remain hidden through blending in with the back-
drop of our urban existence. However, a solution to such a problem would require us
to go beyond discussions centered on food, but we would also have to examine how
food issues emerge in complex urban networks that involve topics such as municipal
budgets, infrastructure management, zoning ordinances, and lending practices. Con-
sider, for instance, what sense would it make to say, “well, our city has crumbling
infrastructure and polluted water, but at least our people have food sovereignty!”
With this point in mind, we should be motivated to identify that the common
ground that strong and weak food sovereignties share because we cannot determine
the requirements for a solution in isolation from the larger socio-political panorama.
There is a basic underlying pattern at play with regards to developing a solution to
different kinds of food sovereignties. The significance of this point is that there is a
basic injustice that drives people to ask questions about food sovereignty. Through
focusing on this aspect, we can begin to better understand how to develop solutions
that are informed by answers to the question, “what is food sovereignty?”.
Now, I want to turn our attention toward how we can work with this notion to
create pathways to food sovereignties. For instance, in a paper published elsewhere,
I argued that we could pair participatory budgeting with vertical agriculture to
increase community’s food sovereignty (Epting 2016). Although this work modestly
deals with a partial solution to food sovereignty in a site-specific context, it vacillates
between practice and theory, leaving much of the theoretical grounds concealed.
Regarding the practical affairs of such a project, those concerns are addressed most
fully if we turn them over to engineers, architects, planners, community groups, and
municipal representatives.
On the theoretical side, however, I argued that to increase and improve global
food sovereignty, to deliver radical change, we had to do so in an incremental
fashion (ibid.). I held that to take command of food security, communities could
engage in projects that would lessen multinational food conglomerates’ stranglehold
on the world’s food supply (ibid.). Keeping in mind that these companies control

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Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating the Question:…

the majority of food sources, from bioengineered seeds to products’ placement on

stores’ shelves, I argued that radical change had to be gradual (ibid.). Yet, the chal-
lenge to this view is that the terms “radical” and “gradual” seem incongruent (ibid.).
Sticking with a strict definition, “radical” means a complete and foundational change
to something. Yet, as we have come to know it today, “radical” bears a connotation
that it happens at once, a coup d’état, so to speak (ibid.).
To radically change the food system, according to contemporary conceptions of
the term (e.g. Nyéléni), we need revolution in the aisles of supermarkets. Golden,
neon arches smashed. Toppling monuments of hamburger-hawking clowns—as if
they were statues of Saddam Hussein in Bagdad or Vladimir Lenin in Kiev. Farm-
lands returned to their iconic glory. Imagine husbands and wives holding pitchforks
in front of family farmhouses, providing food security for the townsfolk. Factory
farms closing. Although such utopian food visions would delight gastronomic in-
crowds, they are highly unrealistic. An alternative is to provide whole foods through
incremental progress, gradually working towards food justice. While this description
is hyperbolic, it shows that if we employ the term “radical” in its popular usage—
one that seems consistent with total food liberation—then we choose a path that is
subject to the same ridicule as the statements above, if they were meant to be taken
at face value. In turn, we must ignore such positions. Instead, endorsing a course
that can stand up to basic scrutiny and facilitate the changes that reasonable food
sovereignty requires sounds appropriate.
If we turn to the kind of changes that strong food sovereignty advocates demand,
achieving this goal will require the concerted efforts of communities, congressional
committees, farmers, and experts in logistics, just to name a few. Such an approach
would take time, perhaps decades. Paying attention to this practical element requires
that we abandon the instantaneous demand for “Food Justice Now!” Here is the bot-
tom line: if you want to fundamentally change food systems in order to restore food
sovereignty, the realistic ways that could bring it to fruition are not consistent with
contemporary views of what it means to be radical (ibid.). We must make conces-
sions to practical considerations. It will be an arduous battle with very little instant
gratification. When we consider that piecemeal progress is the most likely way to
advance the goals of the food sovereignty movement in a county such as the US,
then we can extrapolate details about the global food system.
This point brings up a certain tension that pertains to how we conceptualize solu-
tions to problems such as food sovereignty. That is to say, should we address them as
isolated issues to deliver desired and specific outcomes such as alleviating harm, or
should we just turn to environmental virtue ethics or care ethics to deliver an ethical
mindset that is required to cultivate the kind of character that would be sympathetic
toward improving issues that stem from a lack of food sovereignty? Both make theo-
retical sense, but it seems impractical to think that changing people’s worldviews
on complex food issues could deliver faster and better outcomes for people who are
suffering due to food harms, bearing in mind that now we are thinking about food
issues as inherently interconnected and multidimensional affairs.
Perhaps we could develop international, national, and municipal policies geared
toward changing mindsets, a process that could deliver gradual change to all of the
areas that require attention. This point bolsters the gradually radical solution that I

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 S. Epting

suggested above, but it adds additional layers that could significantly delay actions
that could mitigate food harms. Due to this expansion, alleviating the conditions that
turn people toward wanting food sovereignty becomes an even more distant real-
ity. The means in this sense eliminate the possibility of securing the ends. In turn,
we are better suited to employ an approach that has the mere possibility of attain-
ment. To this end, we can verify that community groups have made modest progress
towards achieving food sovereignty, while making simultaneous progress toward the
need to not have conversations about it. We can follow and learn from their success.
That is to say, community gardens and farmers markets have steadily increased
over the last few decades, and their presence has also had unintended consequences
for areas that are seemingly unrelated to food (Voicu and Been 2008). While there
are different kinds of community gardens (city-sponsored, religious, private), they
do exist within political jurisdictions, meaning that they are weak forms of food
sovereignty. For example, research shows that community gardens play a role
in decreasing crime rates and increasing property values (ibid.). If these kinds of
results become the norm, then they could eventually blend in with the urban land-
scape, becoming the rule instead of the exception. Assuming that this could be a
reality, then “food sovereignty” could become a distant notion that does not require
a movement because it is a sustained and integral part of communities. If such an
outcome were to happen, then we would not need the concept of food sovereignty
to serve as a theoretical device to understand food injustices. In turn, we would not
need to have conversations about food sovereignty.

Conclusion

Although “total food sovereignty now!” or “complete control over all elements that
affect a community’s food security” might be an unfeasible answer to the question,
“what is food sovereignty?” moving toward this goal remains a worthwhile under-
taking for instrumental and intrinsic reasons. Appealing to the former is obvious,
but the latter suggests that there is something that is inherently good about control-
ling one’s food supply. I will not debate this point, but I will question if it provides
us with enough reason to pursue it. If it is necessary, then what are its limits? One
set of limits is when food becomes weaponized or is used as a means of oppression
or any similar scenario. The other set of limits is when food systems remain just.
While hoping for a just food system might be too ambitious, having one that is
always working toward this goal could provide us with an ethical orientation toward
food systems. If we can envision such outcomes, then conversations about food sov-
ereignty that will endure become not a fight for what is good, but an intellectual
undertaking that shows that the questioners have sided with the right side of food
history. Living in such a world entails that we should not be satisfied with unjust
food systems, and lacking food justice should provide food movements with the
motivation to persist, delivering incremental progress.
Despite our theoretical exercises, community groups have formed sub-move-
ments wherein food sovereignty is a required component for food security, and
they have been able to secure a weak version. (Werkheiser and Noll 2014).

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Advancing Food Sovereignty Through Interrogating the Question:…

Although their efforts remain modest, they show that progress is possible. One
could argue that any such progress could not have an impact on the overall con-
dition of global food justice. This is a fair point when considering the minimal
impact that they make on a global scale. However, this criticism does not elimi-
nate the reality that they do take steps to improve the quality and integrity of their
local food, a humble step towards better outcomes.
Jonas (1984) argues that nothing entraps like success, that once a technology
or technique takes hold in society, it secures its presence (at least until another
successful technology comes along). The thinking behind this point is to be sure
about the technologies that we want to unleash upon society. There may be no
turning back. They might seem benign at first, but they could have harmful and
accumulating effects that only emerge after they have become fixtures in soci-
ety. Although this notion sounds insidiously detrimental, the right plans could
produce beneficial outcomes that play a larger role in just food systems. Consid-
ering that technologies could bolster efforts at creating inclusive food systems,
enterprising municipalities could work with communities to create them. Bearing
in mind that earlier I showed that community gardens are increasing, and food-
justice advocates are using advanced technology to improve the conditions that
pertain to food justice, this success could entrap us, creating a dependency of a
delivering just food systems, one farm and one table at a time.

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